OSRS Gryphon Slayer Guide

Onur Author

Created - 10.12.2025 Updated - 10.12.2025

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Old School Runescape’s latest skill, Sailing, has brought a ton of new content for players to engage with. One of these newly added pieces of content is the gryphons. They are a newly added early-game Slayer creature that is easy to farm and has some pretty useful drops, both for making decent money and for progression on Ironman accounts. In this guide, we will take a look at both the regular Gryphons and the Shellbane Gryphon boss and explain the most effective ways to farm both of these creatures.

Killing Slayer creatures, especially bosses, effectively requires good gear. If you do not have the money to get such gear, we’ve got you covered! Check out our RS Store to get any tradable item you desire in the game!

Regular Gryphons

Gryphons are creatures that can be found on the island of Great Conch. To unlock this island, you will first need to reach level 45 Sailing and level 51 Slayer. We have guides on levelling Sailing and Slayer on our blog if you need further assistance with these skills. After reaching 45 Sailing, you must complete the quest Troubled Tortugans to have full access to the island. The quest is fairly simple and easy, so it shouldn’t take you long.

After the quest is completed, you can access the cave that has gryphons in it. There are two caves on the island: the one on the northwest is the regular cave, and the one on the southeast is the Slayer-task-only cave. In each cave, there are both single-way combat areas and multi-way combat areas. In both caves, the multi-way area is located in the southernmost room. You can use that room to cannon these creatures.

Stats

Now let’s take a look at this creature's defence stats.

Mechanics

Regular gryphons have only one mechanic that the player must prepare for. This mechanic is currently unique to gryphons, and it is the weight mechanic. If you are going to kill these creatures, your character must equip armour above 30 kg, or occasionally a gryphon will blast you a few tiles away, stunning you and dealing damage through Protect from Melee. If your character's armour is heavier than 30 kg, the gryphon will stun itself instead, allowing you to get an additional hit in if you click on the stunned target.

If you have Bigger and Badder unlocked, you can get the superior variant called the Dire Gryphon. This creature has the same attack, but stronger. For this version, you will need to have your Tortugan shield equipped. When it tries to do its special attack, you will notice some birds flying around its head (stun animation). When this happens, you need to quickly click on the gryphon to break its attack; otherwise, it will throw you backwards and deal damage to you.

Gear

As mentioned above, the most important part about gear is reaching that 30 kg weight with your armour alone. The items in your inventory won’t count. The most effective way to kill these creatures is with a stab weapon; however, if you don’t have a decent stab weapon, you can use a slash weapon such as an abyssal whip. You also don’t need to wear the tortugan shield for regular gryphons, but it is a good idea to bring it with you for superior spawns. Want even better OSRS Items? Head over to RPGStash for quick access.

• Helmet: Slayer Helmet/Black Mask (black mask is 10kg, whereas Slayer Helmet is 2kg)
• Neck: Amulet of Rancour/Torture
• Ammo: Holy blessing/Rada’s Blessing 4
• Cape: Infernal/Fire Cape (or tortugan shield if you can’t pass 30Kg and if you have superior slayer creatures unlocked.)
• Body: Torva/Bandos/Oathplate/Proselyte 
• Legs: Torva/Bandos/Oathplate/Proselyte  
• Weapon: Belle’s folly/Gharazi rapier/Abyssal Whip
• Shield: Avernic/Dragon defender (Dragonfire shield if you need more weight)
• Boots: Avernic Threads/Primordial/Dragon boots
• Gloves: Ferocious/Barrows gloves
• Ring: Ultor/Berserker ring
• Special attack: Dragon claws/Burning claws
• Inventory: Dwarf cannon with cannonballs, divine super combat potions, prayer potions, tortugan shield, herb sack.

Drops

Most drops from the gryphons are pretty worthless, but here are the ones you should pick up:

• Gryphon feathers - Always
• Snape grass seeds - 1/1365
• Herb table: herbs from guams to dwarf weeds.
• Mithril cannonballs - 1/21
• Adamant cannonballs - 1/64
• Horn of plenty - 1/2500 off task / 1/1000 on task - 5M gold

Shellbane Gryphon

Shellbane gryphon is the boss variant of gryphons, and they can only be killed if you are on a Slayer task. Just like regular gryphons, they can be found inside a cave on Great Conch, so the previous requirements all apply.

Stats

Shellbane gryphon possesses the same defensive stats as their regular counterpart, but they have 400 hitpoints instead of 120.

Mechanics

There are three mechanics that you need to know before killing this boss:

1. Knockback: Just like its regular counterparts, the Shellbane Gryphon can knock you back and deal 30 unavoidable damage. To counter this mechanic, make sure you’re wearing gear that brings your total weight to 40 or higher, and pair it with a Tortugan shield. With these in place, the boss will typically favour its other two attacks instead.

However, if it decides to use the knockback anyway, you’ll see birds circling above its head. This is your cue. Quickly click and attack the boss as soon as you see this animation. If you don’t, you’ll be knocked back regardless of your weight. Reacting in time not only prevents the knockback but also resets your attack cycle, letting you squeeze out even more DPS.

2. Corrosive spit: Occasionally, the boss will fire an orange blob at you. To avoid this, simply step one tile away from your original position the moment you see it coming. If the projectile does hit you, you’ll be inflicted with a unique poison that cannot be cured with antipoisons; the only way to remove it is by unequipping your armor.

That said, if your kill times are fast enough, you can safely ignore this mechanic. The poison deals a total of 18 damage over 20 seconds, which is negligible for most high-DPS setups.

3. Whirlwind: During this attack, whirlwinds will begin spawning on the exact tile your character is standing on, dealing constant damage. A new whirlwind appears every 3 ticks, up to a maximum of five. If you remain in the same spot, they will stack and merge into a larger whirlwind that hits significantly harder.

To avoid this, simply move one tile after each of your hits on the boss. Once all five whirlwinds have spawned, make sure you stay at least two tiles away, as they will explode after a few ticks.

Another thing you must know is that the boss has a slow respawn timer compared to getting out of the cave and going back in, so after each kill, you should quickly leave the cave and go back in the have faster kill times. To kill the boss:

1. Go inside the cave and lure the boss near the cave entrance for faster resets.
2. Summon your thrall and start hitting the boss.
3. Move after every hit and avoid all mechanics.
4. Switch to your bracelet of slaughter and use the special attack restore before killing the boss.
5. Get your loot and reset the cave.

Gear

Just like before, the most important part about your gear is the weight. Make sure you are above 40 weight and wearing your tortugans shield. The boss is pretty easy to kill, so once you get used to the mechanics mentioned above, you should be able to kill it without needing any food. If you're struggling to find better gear, head over to the RPGStash OSRS Store now and choose your ideal equipment to easily defeat bosses.

• Helmet: Slayer Helmet/Black Mask (black mask is 10kg, whereas Slayer Helmet is 2kg)
• Neck: Amulet of Rancour/Torture
• Ammo: Holy blessing/Rada’s Blessing 4
• Cape: Tortugans Shield
• Body: Torva/Bandos/Oathplate/Proselyte
• Legs: Torva/Bandos/Oathplate/Proselyte
• Weapon: Scythe of Vitur/Belle’s folly/Gharazi rapier/Abyssal Whip
• Shield: Avernic/Dragon defender (Dragonfire shield if you need more weight)
• Boots: Avernic Threads/Primordial/Dragon boots
• Gloves: Ferocious/Barrows gloves (bracelet of slaughter switch for more kills)
• Ring: Ultor/Berserker ring
• Special attack: Dragon claws/Burning claws
• Inventory: Runes and Book of the Dead to summon thralls and cast special attack restores or runes for high-level alchemy, divine supercombat potions, prayer potions, herb sack, house teleports, and food if you are not used to the mechanics.

Drops

Here are the most notable drops that you should pick up if you are farming this boss:

• Belle’s folly - 1/400 - 3M
• Gryphon feathers - Always
• Rune claws - 1/12 - 6k
• Rune scimitar - 1/16 - 15k
• Adamant cannonbals - 1/16 - 21k-30k
• Rune cannonballs - 1/21 - 26k-39k
• Herbs from herb drop table

And that’s pretty much everything you need to know to farm both regular Gryphons and the Shellbane boss without any surprises. Once you get used to the weight mechanic and the boss’s attacks, this becomes one of those tasks you can knock out smoothly every time. Whether you’re here for the profit, the early-game Slayer XP, or you just want that Belle’s Folly drop to finally shine in your chat box, Gryphons are a solid and chill piece of content to add to your rotation. If you need any further assistance on your OSRS journey, feel free to check out our Runescape Guides blog! Good luck with your tasks, and may your Slayer points and feathers stack up nicely.